I've just recently moved to sunny Wales and have been without internet since December. I've binge watched about 9 episodes and have just finished episode 85. It's been an intense week. I need to lie down.

(02-16-2017, 04:34 PM)DaggerDaggerDagger Wrote: I've just recently moved to sunny Wales and have been without internet since December. I've binge watched about 9 episodes and have just finished episode 85. It's been an intense week. I need to lie down.

I'm sure it has been. But yeah, for those trying to catch up, here's the main focus points of Episode 77-81. 82-86 to follow soon:

Episode 77: Clash at Daxio
* Vax is level 16 and now a Paladin of Vengeance, which means Vow of Enmity and Hunter's Mark.
* Vex is level 16 and now an Assassin Rogue. She also gets dominated early on but is freed.
* Grog is level 16 and has multiclassed into Fighter.
* Keyleth is level 16 and now has the War Caster feat.
* Percy has one of his worst days ever as all of his guns jam and overall delivers a poor battle performance.
* Keyleth test-drives the Spire of Conflux in battle, roasting 12 lizardfolk with two Fireballs.
* Vox Machina manage to save the fort and some of what's left of the soldiers within.
* Allura was Feebleminded by Gatekeeper Xanthas from the Alabaster Lyceum. He turned traitor and got his comeuppance thanks to Kima and Vex.
* Allura is cured of her Feeblemind and Kima kisses her, making Kimallura canon.
* Plans are underway to retake Emon.

Episode 78: The Siege of Emon
* Vox Machina recruits Gilmore, Jarett, Zahra, Kashaw, and Kima to fight alongside them and Raishan. Scanlan acquires his suude from Jarett.
* Kashaw proves to be a master tactician.
* Keyleth enlists the aid of the Air Ashari to handle the wyverns within the skies. Korren plans to fight alongside his tribe.
* Vax tells Keyleth that he can't wait to come back to Zephra.
* Percy and Vex have sex for the first time. Yes, that happens.
* The group, after finalizing their plans with Daxio and his men, returns to Greyskull Keep and sneaks into Emon.
* The group parlays with the Clasp to expedite their advance towards the Cloudtop District, bypassing much of Thordak's armies.
* Zahra and Kashaw stay behind to fend off fire giants and elementals barring the way to the District.
* Thordak reveals himself for all to see.

Episode 79: Thordak
* The party engages Thordak. Raishan appears in her dragon form and, surprisingly true to her word, attacks Thordak alongside Vox Machina.
* Scanlan does NOT play the brass flute to summon Devo'ssa right away.
* Raishan intentionally hits Vax while hitting Thordak with Chain Lightning. Keyleth does not do the same. The party catches on to Raishan's deceit.
* Vex destroys the gem within Thordak, which causes the Cinder King to shrink in size.
* Thordak attempts to retreat down a tunnel leading further underground. Vax flies after in pursuit.
* Vax'ildan lands the final blow on Thordak with Whisper, finally killing the murderer of his and Vex's mother.
* Raishan follows, intent on fulfilling her end of the bargain. She pulls out a scroll to allow her to speak with Thordak's corpse.
* Keyleth, over the earrings, tells Vax to not let her touch the corpse. Vax, interpreting her words differently, attacks Raishan.
* Raishan flies down the tunnel. The twins and Keyleth pursue, the rest of the party falling behind.
* The half-elves discover five dragon eggs within the true lair of Thordak. Raishan ambushes them with a Meteor Swarm. All of them barely survive.

Episode 80: Raishan
* Raishan turns invisible and begins dispelling the Heroes' Feast protection on the party.
* Everyone else catches up.
* Scanlan FINALLY plays the flute. Devo'ssa appears in all their draconic glory.
* Gilmore neutralizes Raishan's invisibility. Raishan retaliates with powerful spells. (Surprise! She has 4 Legendary Actions and can cast spells with two of them.)
* Vax is nearly killed when he was swatted like a bug down to the ground, almost falling into lava. Keyleth manages to push him away far enough to avoid incineration.
* Vex'ahlia is killed mid-battle. Pike barely manages to revive her.
* Scanlan is killed mid-battle. Pike barely manages to revive him.
* Raishan clutches onto two of the dragon eggs that managed to avoid destruction and attempts to flee.
* Keyleth tries to pursue by jumping over a lava river. She crit fails, and plummets into the river. Takes 53 points of fire damage out of 60. She barely manages to crawl out.
* Raishan erects a Wall of Force to keep the party at bay. By the time they manage to figure out how to get through, Raishan is already gone and so is Thordak's corpse. Raishan effectively has defeated Vox Machina.

Episode 81: What Lies Beneath the Surface
* Vox Machina pulls themselves together and catches their breaths.
* Kashaw and Zahra are revealed to have survived the battle. A stray fire giant is felled thanks to the surprise arrival of Kerrek, now level 7.
* Scanlan smokes the suude he obtained with the tarnished brass flute. He falls unconscious.
* The party tries to inquire about what he did, but the bard deflects the topic towards Vax and his haste in attacking Raishan.
* Vax defends his actions, knowing that Raishan would've betrayed them regardless. He pulls Scanlan aside and gives him a letter that basically says, "You were right."
* Keyleth, unable to deal with the stress and exhaustion, allows herself to collapse and cry while being tended to by Kerrek. Her hair is much shorter now due to falling in lava.
* Grog somehow discovers the ultimate campaign-destroying item ever conceived: the Deck of Many Things. He pulls a card. He obtains a Dancing Sword.
* Vex discover a new flying carpet within Thordak's hoard.
* Gilmore reveals that he is a "runechild". (Which will be detailed in Matt's campaign book.)
* The party decide to only take a small amount of money, leaving the rest for the people of Emon and the Clasp.
* The battle seems to have been won, but with many casualties and some unaccounted for as of yet. Daxio agrees to keep an eye on the Clasp.
* The battle-weary party (plus Kerrek) return to Whitestone. Percy hugs his sister while covered in blood and dirt. Cassandra is disgusted.
* Percy has a bath. Vax enters the bath and has a heartwarming talk with Percy. After he leaves, Vex emerges from beneath the surface of the water, saying "I thought he'd never leave!"
* Scanlan, in an attempt to obtain more suude, casts Modify Memory on Jarett. Under the influence, Jarett agrees.
* The party decide to scry on Raishan. They discover her to be on the isle of Viscan within the lair of the long-dead necromancer Opash. The lair was also once Thordak's.
* After much deliberation, the party decides to rest before pursuing Raishan, since if they left now while both sides were exhausted and depleted, many of them would die. Scanlan objects because he does not want to die, but his objection is overruled.
* Before sleeping, Vax goes to Keyleth's room and uses Whisper to cut off the burnt edges of her hair. He then comforts Keyleth in saying that everyone has faith in her and that she is loved. Keyleth admits that Vox Machina were her first and longest-lasting friends, and her family. She expresses concern about her new look. Vax shushes her with a kiss.
* Scanlan burns Vax's letter and packs up his "pipe" for the morning.

(02-19-2017, 12:17 PM)DaggerDaggerDagger Wrote: Nice run down TiamatZX, thanks. What do you think about Scanlan's departure? Really knocked me off my feet.

I'm very conflicted about it because he was wrong about them doing everything just for themselves. They did those things they said because it was for the sake of protecting others as well. I posted a thing on Tumblr that voices my thoughts on that moment.

He was lying to them and to himself. He always did that. He knew that, and he did so anyway. And the party DOES care a lot about him; it's his fault for not opening up enough in the first place.

On the other hand, he'd been extremely stressed. So I can't fault him for that.

Yeah it was definitely a difficult emotional ride for sure. It's obvious that Sam was trying to portray Scanlan's depression, and did so incredibly well and convincingly.

I still haven't seen anything from Sam about his reasons yet, so my thoughts are all just speculation. I think that in recent episodes Sam hasn't been playing Scanlan in his usual way. Back during the Briarwood arc he was on fire, using his spells in very creative ways. In recent episodes there's been none of the usual Scanlan flare. Maybe Sam was starting to get bored as Scanlan, or just wanted a break from that character for personal reasons. The whole drug thing seems to have been a clever lead up to it.

I think what made it so difficult to watch was the very real emotion Sam put into it. Also in normal gaming etiquette most players don't call other players on their emotional attachments to each other. But when the role playing is of such high quality, its not really surprising that the bar is continually rising.

Overall the episode was electric to watch, and the most recent episode proves the show is successful because of the players and not their characters.

Episode 82: Deadly Echoes
* Scanlan and Percy are now level 16. Percy maxes his Intelligence. (Albeit he could've picked something better.)
* Pike is now level 15. Therefore, 8th-level spells.
* The party wakes up and prepares to head to Viscan. Vax loans his invisibility ring to Kerrek, while Keyleth loans her cloak to him.
* Grog's Dancing Sword is cursed (due to a retcon where Matt realized that Travis had pulled the incorrect card; it was actually the Euryale, not the Key) and in turn, he is cursed. -2 to all saving throws.
* The party eats a Heroes' Feast in preparation of Raishan.
* Keyleth greets the Sun Tree, which now is starting to sprout leaves again. Percy teases her.
* The party, along with Allura, Kima, and Kerrek, arrives at the island.
* Vex tricks Grog into giving her the deck. Grog is blissfully unaware.
* The party is blocked by a boulder. They spend a long time trying to move it. (Yep, that running gag continues. And to be frank, I'm really tired of it.)
* In seeing Vox Machina's antics, Allura is reminded of her old adventuring days. Kerrek feels comfortable in Grog's embrace.
* Keyleth asks to pet Vax's wings. Vax lets her. Wingfic moment.
* The party finds an ominous book and an unlit brazier. Keyleth ignites it at Grog's insistence. An explosive trap is triggered, but is only a decent annoyance.
* The party hears ominous cackling. Pike casts Holy Aura. They are ambushed by four flameskulls. The flameskulls fire four simultaneous fireballs, dealing significant damage to the group, but are otherwise defeated.
* A staircase trap is bypassed.
* Scanlan smokes his suude, which ends up granting him a sorcery point for the Extended Spell effect for the next hour.
* A creepy AF scene happens involving reversed gravity, corpses, and a huge mass of them on the ceiling forming a giant skull that threatens to devour.
* Vex and Pike are attacked by the corpses "falling" up. The party barely manages to get them free and safe. Percy makes out with Vex.
* A fountain is, well, found. They deduce that the fountain is connected to the chasm trap.
* The twins scout ahead in a corridor. They see Thordak's corpse, the two dragon eggs, and a woman with dark-green hair, her back turned.

Episode 83: The Deceiver's Stand
* Sam promotes Marvel Puzzle Quest. He botches the names, but whether on purpose or not, who can say.
* The party fails to stealth up to the twins. Raishan is aware of their presence.
* Raishan delivers a classic villain speech to the group, trying to guilt-trip them about "breaking their agreement." She reveals that she found her answers, and plans to use the party once more for her own ends to achieve her goals. Keyleth counters with a surprisingly awesome speech of her own. She voices that she wishes not for revenge, but to see justice done. She offers Raishan the chance to stand trial. The dragon refuses. The battle begins.
* The eggs are swiftly dealt with.
* Raishan's human visage fades, revealed to be an illusion. She is actually invisible and actually behind them in her dragon form.
* Vex manages to successfully restrain her for a while with Bramble Shot.
* Raishan eventually breaks free and proceeds to cast Meteor Swarm which knocks out Kerrek, Allura, and Trinket. Everyone else is reduced from triple digit HP to single digits or low double-digits.
* Allura tries to Counterspell an incoming Disintegrate from Raishan. She fails.
* Disintegrate hits the severely weakened Pike. She barely survives due to the Plate of the Dawnmartyr's revival feature.
* Allura casts Dispel Magic to attempt to remove Raishan's invisibility. She succeeds.
* Scanlan is knocked unconscious and severely wounded. He fails his final death save and dies.
* Pike tries to cast Revivify. She fails. Scanlan stays dead until a proper ritual can be done.
* Keyleth, out of desperation and after the dragon exhausts her legendary resistances, attempts to cast Feeblemind.
* Raishan fails her Intelligence save. She loses everything that made her who she was. The tide of battle has shifted.
* Raishan manages to, in her feral state, slay Percy.
* Kerrek gets the kill on Raishan. (Debatable, since technically what he killed was now just a feral, stupid dragon. The Raishan we knew actually had died with Keyleth's Feeblemind.)
* Pike casts Revivify on Percy. She barely succeeds. Vex smothers him with kisses.
* Grog does not take Scanlan's death very well. "Fix him! FIX HIM!!!"
* The party attempts to teleport out. The spell fails. The party starts to realize that Raishan's claims that there are "tools" to keep them in line are true, as teleportation magic is hindered on the island.
* Pike uncovers a very sinister book. It is placed in the bag of holding.
* Keyleth strikes Raishan's corpse with the Spire. The disease finalizes, destroying her remains. "That was for Scanlan, from the Ashari, you bitch."
* They vacate the inner sanctum after raiding it, burning it all with fire spells.
* The flameskulls are revived. They are dispatched once again.
* Allura tries to cast Teleportation Circle. She goes through and vanishes. Kima follows suit and vanishes as well.
* Keyleth casts Scrying to find them. They are in the middle of the ocean, far off-course.
* The party arrives at the beach. Keyleth does a desperate scan of the ocean to find them. Natural 20 plus 11. She finds them. Kerrek tries to talk her down and convince her that they are a lost cause, that what she saw is not them. (I hated this moment. As much as I understand how jaded Kerrek became in his past, this was NOT what Keyleth needed to hear. Shame.)
* Vex and Percy fly out into the ocean in the direction Keyleth pointed out. She finds Allura and Kima who manage to hang onto the broom. Percy later retrieves the pair on the flying carpet. Kerrek is rendered speechless when they return.
* Keyleth attempts to cast Transport via Plants. She succeeds and they return to Whitestone.
* The group heads to the Raven Queen temple for the ritual. Grog doesn't want to go in. Keyleth convinces him to go in for Scanlan's sake. He accepts and enters.
* Percy and Kerrek have a talk about life and death. Percy says that sometimes, you need something to cut through to reach you. (In other words, he most likely heard Vex's plea to him during his first resurrection.)
* Vex finds Gilmore who takes him to Eskil Ryndarian who teleports them to Kymal to retrieve Kaylie so she can take part in Scanlan's ritual. After some persuading, the younger Shorthalt agrees and takes Vex's Gate Stone. Vex and Eskil are stranded in Kymal for a day.